Boosting Your Income Series (#1): How to Start Your SMS Business

If you’ve been searching for a proven, risk-free, low-capital, and highly profitable
business that you can run right from the corner of your room, please adjust your
seat, and read this page with rapt attention.

I want to introduce to you the bulk SMS retail (or reselling) business (I guess
you’ve heard about it before). In this post and subsequent ones, you’ll learn the
basics of this business as well as everything you need to know in order to make
huge profits from it.

Now, get this clear: This business won’t start making you millions by tomorrow
or next week. As is the case with other businesses, you’ll need to work hard in
other to succeed as a bulk SMS reseller. So, if you thought you’ve stumbled upon
a business model that will promise overnight riches or 8-figures at the click of a
button, you got it wrong. Darn wrong.

However, with the guidelines you’ll learn in the post and subsequent ones, you’ll
be able to jump-start your bulk SMS retail business and soar above competitors
within little time.

If you think this business isn’t for you, you’re free to stop reading at this point.
But if you’ve been wanting a stress-free business that will supplement your
income, read on.

To start with, let me explain to you the basics you need to know about the
business.

What is bulk SMS?

As the name implies, bulk SMS refers to customized text messages that are
sent out to a large number of recipients at once. This method of information
dissemination has the following advantages over other text-messaging methods:

• It is much cheaper when compared to standard rates charged by telecom
operators

• It is very convenient, as the messages can be delivered to several thousands
of recipients at the click of a button

• Messages can be custom-branded (that is, the sender can choose to deliver
the messages in his/her name or a company name)

What is bulk SMS reselling?

This business involves buying SMS credits at cheaper rates and selling in smaller
volumes to end customers – for profit, of course. (You can see that the model is
very simple.)

How it works

You register an account as a reseller with an SMS supplier company – online.
Then you buy a specified number of SMS units, add some margin, and sell to
customers.

For example, you buy 1000 SMS units from XYZsms.com for N800 (this means a
unit sold for N0.80, or 80 kobo). Then you sell at N1.00 per unit to your customers
(making you a profit of 20 kobo per unit). After selling all 1000 units, you would
make a total profit of N200. You get it now?

To operate this business smoothly, you’ll need your own online platform through
which your customers can register with your business and place their orders.
Setting up this platform is no rocket science. It’s insanely easy. (I’ll go into more
details about this in subsequent posts.)

Let’s stop here for now. In the next post we’ll be looking at the advantages of
this business as well as its disadvantages. Knowing these will help you make an
informed decision over whether or not to venture into the bulk SMS reselling
business.